9 Tips to Get a Good Night’s Sleep With CLL

“Patients may experience persistent fatigue, night sweats, unintentional weight loss, enlarged lymph nodes, abdominal fullness or discomfort from an enlarged spleen, and sometimes bone or joint pain,” says Larry Ladi, MD, the medical director of inpatient operations at City of Hope Cancer Center in Phoenix. “These symptoms can interfere with daily activities, exercise, appetite, and sleep.”

In addition, Dr. Ladi says the emotional and mental health impacts of a cancer diagnosis also play a role. “Living with a chronic cancer diagnosis can create significant stress, anxiety, and uncertainty, particularly for patients on active surveillance who may not require immediate treatment but are still living with the disease,” he says.

1. Develop a Routine

2. Create a Comfortable Environment

Make your bedroom and bed a comfortable and inviting space dedicated to getting restful sleep. “Create a cool, dark, and quiet sleep environment,” says Wilson. “Use your bed primarily for sleep rather than activities such as watching television, scrolling on your phone, or working.”

But that may not be the case for everyone. “For some, limiting screen time may be helpful,” says Jay Yang, MD, a hematologist and a medical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit. “For others, screen time may be a sleep aid.”

3. Establish Daytime Habits That Optimize Restful Sleep

“Limit caffeine and alcohol intake, particularly later in the day,” says Yang. “Stay active and exercise during the day.”

Both caffeine and nicotine are stimulants. If caffeine affects your sleep, try to avoid it after lunch. It’s beneficial to avoid smoking for many reasons, but it can also keep you from getting a good night’s sleep.

4. Practice Relaxation Techniques

5. Keep a Sleep Diary

“Consider keeping a sleep diary,” says Wilson. “Tracking when you go to bed, when you wake up, nighttime awakenings, naps, and symptoms such as snoring, night sweats, or restless legs can help you and your healthcare team better understand sleep problems and identify possible causes.”

6. Manage Anxiety, Stress, and Depression

“For those suffering from anxiety or depression, being proactive and seeing a therapist or psychiatrist may be very helpful,” says Yang. “In addition, a form of sleep counseling called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be helpful for patients struggling to get a good night’s sleep with CLL.”

7. Consider Supplements

“Supplements can sometimes be helpful,” says Yang. “The most well-known example is melatonin, and some of my patients have also used magnesium with success. Some patients have benefited from a small dose of medical marijuana or CBD before bed as well.”

8. Manage Night Sweats and Pain

“When someone has night sweats, it counts as a B symptom, which counts as a criteria for treatment,” says Jennifer Huang, MD, PhD, a blood cancer specialist at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle and an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “When I talk about these night sweats, I’m referring to drenching night sweats, where you wake up and the pillow is damp, pajamas are wet, and you need to go change. Then we need to start talking about treatment options for someone who has a new diagnosis or is on a surveillance watch and wait approach.”

Some symptoms may be side effects of medication, like muscle aches and joint pains. “If any of these side effects are starting to keep people up at night, I do encourage patients to talk to their doctor about whether or not dose adjustment is necessary,” says Dr. Huang.

9. Ask About Sleep Aids

If you’ve tried other options and sleep is still not improving, medications are available.

“I would reserve pharmacological strategies like sleep aids as more of a second line option, because they do have side effects,” says Huang. “Not only drowsiness that kind of seeps into the next day, but also brain fog.”